Breaking the Barrier
by Forever A Fool of Fortune
Summary: The first hug before he ever left our walls of just nothing friends, into something more. And we will be more I'll make sure of that. My mother always said I was a determined little girl. Mums, I'm going to make you proud.


Breaking the Barrier 

ONE SHOT

Disclaimer: If I haven't said it enough! I do not own the Harry Potter books, movies, characters and settings, and I never will. All I own, are well… the first three chapters in my own stories. Thank you, I don't OWN IT! Grr!

Summary: The first hug before he ever left our walls of just nothing friends, to something more. And we will be something more; I'll make sure of that. My mother always said I was a determined little girl. Mums, I'm going to make you proud.

Author's Note: This is going to be the most innocent, nieve little one shot that I have _ever_ written. I just hope that I have enough innocence still left in me to write it. This is going to be so hard. Now, let me see if I can just get all the innocence left in me to do it. I am so sorry I haven't written anything in so long, I've been trying to write two books at one time, and then I have my school work, and riding, and its all very complicated. I have to learn some French for one of the books, and its going to take forever.

Oh, and the first couple pages, all the things that they say completely belong to the wonderful and all powerful writer of this beloved story of these so awesome people, J.K. Rowling.

Here it is. Have some fun on a ride back to the innocence. I hope you even know what its like to go back to this age in life, for I barley even remember when I was this innocent, for I was corrupted at an early age. Sorry if this as perfect as I know some people could get it.

* * *

I'm glad we didn't have to fight that one," Harry whispered as we stepped carefully over one of the massive legs. "Come on, I can't breathe."

He pulled open the next door and held it open politely for me. I gladly obliged and went in first. I would have ever expected what would come up next; I was expecting a dragon, maybe even fire. Well, I was kind of close. There was nothing that should have scared us in here, just a table with seven oddly shaped bottles lined up next to each other.

"Snape's," said Harry to me quietly. "What do we have to do?" I looked over at it inquisitively, and together we stepped over the threshold, and immediately fire sprang up behind us and the door before us. I yelped in my head, and automatically stepped a bit closer to Harry, but he didn't notice. The fire was an unusual color, a bright purple in the door behind us. The door in front of us, however, was a deep black, that scared me a bit. We were trapped.

"Look!" I said suddenly, seizing a roll of paper lying next to the bottles. I could feel Harry's breath on my shoulder as I read it. (_A/N: Do I really have to copy that much from the book? Its on page 285._) I let out a deep sigh and smiled at Harry.

"_Brilliant!_" I said to him quickly. "It's not magic- its logic- a puzzle. A lot of the greatest wizards haven't got an _ounce_ of logic, they'd be stuck in here forever."

"But so will we, won't we?" He asked me, a downcast loomed over his boyish features, the firelight illuminating his ebony hair. I felt bad for him, apparently he didn't know I was once a brilliant riddle master, still am of course.

"Of course not." I said to him briskly. "Everything we need is here on this paper," I said, tapping a finger onto the scroll. "Seven bottles: three are poison; two are wine; one will get us safely through the black fire, and one will get us back through the purple."

"But how do we know which one to drink?" He said desperately. He looked like he was about to cry. I can't let that happen. Must think fast.

"Give me a minute." I re-read the paper numerous times, muttering and pointing. I clapped my hands after a few minutes. I can't really describe how I figured them out. I think it just clicked in my mind, and I felt like the whole thing seemed to be the easiest thing in the world. I said before that I was the Riddle Queen, but I would have never figured that one out.

"Got it," I said. "The smallest bottle will get us through the black fire- toward the Stone." He looked at it slowly.

"There's only enough there for one of us," he said to us slowly. "That's hardly one swallow." I wanted to say, 'well, then just drink not even a swallow, so I can have the rest!' But you know I couldn't really do that, so I nodded.

We looked at each other slowly. "Which one will get you back through the purple flames?" He asked me. I whined in my head. 'But I don't _want to_ go back, Harry! I want to go with you!' But I didn't say anything. I instead pointed at the roundest bottle at the right end of the line.

"You drink that," said Harry. "No listen, get back and get Ron. Grab brooms from the flying-key room, they'll get you out of the trapdoor and past Fluffy- go straight to the owlery and send Hedwig to Dumbledore, we need him. I might be able to hold Snape off for a while, but I'm no match for him, really."

I listened to him, trembling, but just nodded my head and watched him warily. Another though snapped into my head. "But Harry- what if You-Know-Who's with him?" I was looking at him desperately, pleadingly.

He looked at me, which a small smirk playing on his lips. He smiled sardonically. "Well- I was lucky once, wasn't I?" He said, pointing at his scar. "I might get lucky again." He shrugged his shoulders, nonchalant, and went over to the smallest bottle.

I don't know what came over me at that moment, it was certainly one of my more well, _girlish_ moments, but I really couldn't help it. It took me all year to work up the courage to do this, and I wasn't going to let myself down.

It took me days after I saw Harry that first time on the train to actually _talk to him_, and even then I was talking almost bashfully, wanted to blush like a baby. Oh how I just wanted to touch him, to hold him, to let him hug me, back. And that's when I decided it, I want to hug him. And I'm not going to repeat what I was just saying.

I decided to go for the crying girl act, that I had seen all the movie star girls pull off whenever they want a boy to hug them. I made my lip tremble, but that I was going to do _anyway_, for I truly didn't want to just waltz off without knowing what was going to happen to the boy I had a crush on. I dashed to Harry, and threw my arms around him.

"_Hermione_!" He said to me surprised. I was holding him tightly to my chest, and I didn't want to let go. Not yet. But he was writhing against my small body, and I had to let him go. Just… not yet. I clutched to him tighter to my chest.

"Harry- you're a good wizard, you know." I said to him, again with the bashfulness! Will it never leave me?

"I'm not as good as you," He said to me, very embarrassed, as I _finally_ let go of him. But I was still holding one of his hands, and he wasn't resisting, to caught up and hanging his head, and looking down at his feet that were shuffling.

"Me!" I said surprised. "Books! And cleverness! There are more important things- friendship and bravery and- oh Harry- be _careful!_"

"You drink first," Harry said to me, holding out the vial, that I'm surprised that he even remembered which one it was. "You are sure which is which, aren't you?" Why does he doubt me? I've helped him this far, helped him with all his homework and studying for his exams, even stood with him when everyone around us, besides Neville of course, didn't. He doubts_ me?_

"Positive," I said in my bossy tone. I took in a deep breath, and a big look at Harry for who knows? It may be the last time I ever do. I held the large bottle to my lips and took a long swig, and shuddered, as I felt the ice going through out my veins.

"It's not poison?" He asked anxiously, and I shook my head for no, and to get some warmth back.

"No- but its like ice."

He started pushing me a little toward the purple flames, and I felt ticklish where his fingers touched me. I shook again. "Quick, go, before it wears off."

I said my farewell words, and hugged him again, lightly this time. "Good luck- take care" He cut me off before I could say the last parts.

"GO!"

I turned, to show I didn't need him to tell me what to do, and walked straight through the fire. All I saw was purple, before that horrid smell filled my nasal captivity again. I gagged, and covered my nose. There was a grunt, as I stepped my way cautiously around the giant troll, and as soon as I shut the door I heard its legs start to move and wobble.

I wiped my eyes slowly, and ran over to Ron's still form. He moaned a little when my knees hit the tile right next to his head. I ripped off the hem of my skirt and wrapped it around his head, where some blood was still trickling down, even a half an hour later.

"Well, Ron if you cannot say where it hurts, then I'm just going to have to find out." I lifted up his right arm, the one he landed on, and he whimpered softly. I did what my mother always did when every I scraped my knee or my elbow, and kissed the arm gently, wiping away the grim and dust before I did of course.

And to keep him from leaving the conscious state completely, I started talking to him slowly, and gently, just saying anything and everything, not really paying attention to whatever spilled from my mouth. "I finally did it, Ron. I did something that it had taken me all year to do. Hug him. Yes, this may seem just like another one of those trivial things that girls always do that boys can not even begin to comprehend, but I'll try and help you understand some of it now." I sat down close to Ron, maybe even on top of him, don't know really, and went on with the talking.

"He just looked so sad, and I didn't know what else to do. I felt like I needed to do something, _anything_ to keep his heart up, just a little. And, needless to say, I needed it too."

"I'm sure you did, Hermione. But would you please get off my stomach before I start coughing up blood?" Ron mumbled beneath me. I yelped, and quickly scurried on my knees and off him. He sat up slowly, against his trusty chess horse's flank, and heaved and coughed out his lungs, making flem come up out and make itself known to the outside world.

"Ah, Miss Granger, Mister Weasley. I assume that your accomplice, Mister Potter, is through out the next three doors?" Dumbledore seemed to appear from the shadows of the flickering torches on the board, and after all these things that have happened to me today, I don't mind. Ron looked at me.

"Yes professor." I said, politely.

"Good," He said. Then he turned to his right. "Minerva? Will you please watch over mister Weasley for a few moments please?"

"Certainly Albus." She said coolly to him, as she too appeared from the shadows.

"Miss Granger," Professor Dumbledore said to me, "would you like to come with me, to find Mister Potter?"

"Certainly Professor!" I said quickly, rising from my knees and straightening my skirt.

"Come then." He said, and then turned with his cloak swept over the air, making that strange whirling sound that I'm far too used to by now. I had to sprint to keep up with him, for he himself was jogging to the troll. He had already immobilized it by the time I came in, and was already going through the purple flames, and they didn't even lick the hem of his robes. "Hurry Miss Granger, something evil is at work." He then jumped over the black flames, and disappeared from my view.

I stood nervously in the room I had hugged Harry just a half an hour before, and hugged him with all my might. "For Harry." I whispered to myself and took a deep breath before sprinting through the dark flames. It felt hot, and like I was to be burned, but as soon as the sensation was almost too much to go through, it stopped suddenly, and I ended up rolling out of it, before Professor Dumbledore stopped me and held me up.

We watched in horror, and awe at the scene we were watching. "Then kill him, fool, and be done!" A slimly disembodied voice I heard says, that echoed through all the walls. Quirrell, of all people, reached out his wand arm, and started to mutter. But Harry reached out instinctively and grabbed Quirrell's face. They both were screaming in pain.

"AAAARGH!" I heard Harry scream, and Quirrell's face blister, and Harry's hands bleed. Harry jumped to his feet and caught Quirrell on the arm, and held on to him as long as he could. Quirrell was screaming in pain, and was shaking his arm, trying to rid Harry.

"KILL HIM! KILL HIM!" The voice shouted again. I stepped forward instinctively, ready to face anything for Harry. But Professor Dumbledore held me back.

"Professor?" I said quietly, but he heard me over the screams of pain and more "KILL HIM YOU FOOL!"

"We have to let him face this on his own, Miss Granger." I turned slowly and saw Quirrell's body or what was left of it, turn to dust. Well, some of it anyway, for Harry was still clutching an arm. Harry fell, slowly on a step, as it seemed a ghost formed out of Quirrell's body and knocked him over.

"Harry! Harry!" I screamed to him, as I saw his head fall onto a corner of a step. I leapt off the stairs and rushed to Harry, and Dumbledore couldn't even stop me. I slowly pried his fingers from the arm, and I looked up to him to see his eyes roll into the back of his head before he went unconscious. And, without another though, I hugged him again. Harder, longer, desperate to clutch on to his warmth, for watching him fall, made me feel cold inside, and I couldn't stay cold forever.

Dumbledore had to pry me off him, and told me softly, "If you would be so kind Miss Granger, and help me carry Harry here to Professor McGonagall and Mister Weasley?"

"Yes sir." I said, breathlessly, and lifted Harry's arms and upper torso into my arms, as Dumbledore lifted Harry's legs and midsection with the slightest grunt of pain, and we set off to find Ron, and to tell him all about what we had saw. Ron and I limped behind the teachers, carrying Harry between us. "We did it, Ron." I said slowly, as we reached the Devil's Snare and Professor Dumbledore carelessly, made it rot and die so we could reach the top. The dogs were sleeping, for a violin was playing in the chamber, and we clambered out of the chamber and down the staircase, making sure to take it slowly to the Hospital Wing.

"Um yeah, sure we did Hermione." Ron said to the silence of the corridor. "Wait, what did we do?" I rolled my eyes and sighed, as Harry's head lulled onto my shoulder.

"We broke the barrier. We broke the unseen barrier of our friendship, making it prove itself that it was so much greater. We broke the barriers of our fears. And we broke the barrier of the only things we have ever known. We did it."

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That seemed like a good place to stop it, don't you think? Let me repeat this is a one shot, so nothing will be done after this. Read and review, if you want. I really want to know what you think of it. 


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